sen

(Iacon and Kaon are in diff time zones)

It’s late, even the buzz of Iacon night life has long quieted. Orion hasn’t moved from his desk in so long his joints are stiff. He’s been waiting, comms open, tuned to a secure channel, no message yet.

He stretches after finishing another datapad, and checks the time. Megatron’s match should’ve ended ages ago. The pit’s rarely on time, but there shouldn’t be this much of a delay. He refreshes the line, even though it won’t make it ring any sooner.

When the call finally comes through, it’s grainy like always, and Megatron’s voice is low and tired.

“Hey.”

Orion doesn’t scold him, even though he really wants to. Wants to ask what happened, if he’s hurt, how bad was it this time. But instead he says, “You’re late.” Then after a beat, “Are you okay?”

Megatron doesn’t answer right away, but the delay is answer enough.

“I won,” he says eventually.

That’s it. No follow up. No rundown of the fight. No snide remark about his opponent. Orion sits up straighter.

“That’s not what I asked.”

Megatron exhales through his vents, “It was nothing.”

Which, coming from Megatron, tells Orion everything.

“You called late,” Orion says, not accusing, just stating a fact. “I thought maybe…” He doesn’t finish the sentence.

Megatron picks up on it anyway, “I’m in one piece,” he says. “You don’t have to worry.”

“I do anyway.”

There’s a long pause, not tense or uncomfortable, just quiet, it stretched on until Orion yawns.

This time Megatron’s voice held a tinge of amusement, “What time is it over there?”

“Late.”

“That’s not a time.”

Orion glances toward the window. The city is peaceful and quiet at this time. Orion doesn’t feel peaceful, he just feels tired.

“Early morning.”

“You stayed up?”

“Mhm.”

“Even though I didn’t call?”

“Of course.”

Megatron exhales again, softer this time.

“You should’ve gone to recharge.”

Orion hummed noncommittally in response.

“Orion.”

It’s just his name, but it’s said with that particular gravity Megatron has when he’s soft but stern, like a warning.

Orion leans his head back, staring at the ceiling before closing his optics. “You just got out of a fight, you’re the one who should be resting.”

“I will.”

“You always say that.”

“And you always ignore your recharge cycle.”

That gets a tired smile out of Orion. Touché.

“I’ll go recharge if you do,” he bargains, knowing full well Megatron probably won’t.

“I’m not in a berth yet.”

“Then we’re at an impasse.”

Another silence. Megatron sighs, “Just go lie down, keep the line open if you want to.”

“Fine,” Orion says, “If I go quiet, don’t hang up.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Even if I stop answering.”

“I said I wouldn’t.”

Yeah technically it doesn’t take long to travel on Cybertron. But imagine Megatron, half reclined on his berth, armor scuffed and energon stained after a long day. He’s exhausted, but still ranting to Orion about his new ideas for the revolution. Meanwhile at the Hall of Records, Orion’s at his terminal, he’s reread the same sentence 3 times and not a single word stuck, because Megatron’s yapping away in his audials.

Orion cuts him off, he needs to focus on his work and “Megatron, you haven’t recharged in two cycles.”

But Megatron is a stubborn bastard and he refuses to go without a fight, arguing that he’s not tired or doesn’t have the luxury or some other excuse. Orion just rubs his optics and sighs exasperatingly, “Recharge, or I’m going to hang up.”

Megatron huffs, but the sound of him shuffling filters through the call, metal creaking, armor shifting, and a quiet exhale as he settles on the berth.

Good luck

Ugh I lovee smokey so much... i'm glad so many people also like that headcanon. I'm so curious what fic you are talking about though, please share if you can!

If you want to, could you tell about it?

I'm intrigued it sounds so interesting and the art is so good!

I didn’t think too much about the AU when I was doodling it! I mostly wanted to draw their dialogue in Exodus and play on the more innocent and naive depictions of Orion. Originally I thought of it as his SG origins, but the worldbuilding would be kind of inconsistent.

Maybe Orion in this AU would be sent by the high council to gather more information about Megatronus and see if he is a threat to their "peaceful society". And this is how he learns about the gladiator’s speeches, which makes him realize how dissatisfied he was, having to constantly listen to the high council’s orders and basically run errands for them.

I imagine that he knows he looks non threatening, and uses it to get Megatron to lower his guard. He lies about his occupation and connection to the high council, and Megatron starts trusting him, helping him see the truth about the suffering caused by the system.

It made sense if he never learned the truth about his creators for his safety, and same for Optimus not knowing details about Smokescreen. But I do think it’s really sweet that Alpha Trion told him stories about Optimus, even how Alpha Trion’s influenced the High Council’s decision on making Orion a prime. Imagine what else Alpha Trion has told him if that alone made Optimus trust Smokescreen, it’s like he wanted to make sure smokescreen knew his dad, even though he couldn’t tell the truth.

Optimus could’ve found out about Smokescreen’s origins when he spoke to Alpha Trion as he was about to become one with the allspark. And it might’ve also influenced his decision in passing the matrix on to smokescreen (though in the end smokescreen revived Optimus with the forge).

Smokescreen also shares part of Optimus’s color scheme in his original paint job. And even though I see him as both jazzop and megop’s love child, i can’t lie that he looks a lot like a combination of tfp Orion and rid jazz. The door wings, shape of his pauldrons, and color placement are similar to jazz, his head, flat fingers, and some shapes and details in his plating and similar to Orion/Optimus.